I regularly hear that strengthening the “muscle corset” is considered a good solution for lower back pain. This refers to the idea that the abdominal and back muscles must be made stronger to better support the back.
This can certainly have a positive effect, but only when these muscles actually play a role in the development of the complaints.
Compare it to a car that is not running well. You might decide to purchase four new tires, because that is, after all, what the car drives on. But if it later turns out that the problem was actually caused by a defective fuel pump, then those expensive tires were not the solution. Of course, new tires are never completely useless — just as back exercises are not — but perhaps time and money could have been better spent in another way.
A practical example
On September 3, I saw a 35-year-old patient with lower back pain. He mentioned that his back would regularly “go out,” sometimes even during minor movements.
My examination revealed that there was tension present in a section of the spinal cord, at the level of the shoulder blades. According to my findings, this tension had arisen due to a trauma at that level, presumably around his fifteenth year.
When I asked him about this, he told me that during a water polo training session, someone had once jumped onto his back from the high diving board — feet first. A significant impact, precisely at the spot where I found tension during the examination.
When you see this connection, you might wonder whether exercises for only the lower back will have a sufficient effect. Sometimes the origin of back complaints lies in a completely different part of the body than where the pain is ultimately felt.
Within osteopathy, we therefore do not only look at the location of the complaint, but we try to understand why the body has become unbalanced.
